To:F. E. DZERZHINSKY

Published:First published in 1959 inLenin Miscellany XXXVI.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      pages173c-174a.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

21. XII. 1918

Tothe Vecheka

ComradeDzerzhinsky,

Ienclose a complaint.

Pleasefind out without fail who is responsible for this
red tape (noreply from 3.XII to 20. XIII! Yet the decreeis dated 21. XI!!!) and
prosecute.[1]Such a disgraceful thingmust not be allowed to go unpunished. Apparently there
are saboteurs in the office.

Further,you must appoint a person totake chargeof
the speedy, immediate transfer of the warehouses.

Reportwhat you have done.

Greetings,Yours,Lenin

[1]Thisrefers to the transfer to the People’s Commissariat for Food
of warehouses of industrial and handicraft products, which
were at the disposal of the All-Russia Extraordinary
Commission (Vecheka). The transfer was to have been made
in pursuance of the decree on the organisation of supplies
for the population adopted by the Council of People’s Commissars
on November 21, 1918. On December 3, 1918, the Food
Commissariat asked the Vecheka to turn over the warehouses to the Chief
Board for Distribution of Products, but up to December 20 this
request remained without reply. On December 20, the Food
Commissariat applied to the Council of Defence concerning this
matter.